Schools in Uganda are Open for all Students/Grades

For the first time in almost two years, and after the world’s longest COVID shutdown, schools in Uganda are now open for all students/grades.

While this is great news, the length of time that schools have been “out” has created some issues that will have long term impact on students across the country. Despite efforts at remote education, more than 50% of Uganda’s students effectively stopped learning in March 2020 after the government closed schools; thus, most students are behind by almost two years at this point. Additionally, many students will not be able to return to school due to their family’s inability to afford the tuition/fees. Many students got jobs during the pandemic to help support their families financially, and now their families can’t afford for them not to work. Many young girls are now pregnant or new mothers.

While this is heartbreaking, and the effects of the shutdown will have lasting impact, we are committed to doing what we can to help. We are continuing our partnership with the schools we’ve been working with and doing what we can to cover their needs, and we are ensuring that the students we have sponsored in the past are back at school, with their school fees covered.
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Pictured below is Nanyonyi. We have sponsored her since 2018, after we met her at the construction site of the Community Learning Center that we were building. She was not in school at the time, because her family couldn’t afford it; she came to the job site every day, with her baby brother on her back, and moved bricks and stomped dirt and did whatever we needed help with. She just started secondary school, and we are so proud of her progress and effort and passion for learning.